Vehicles for receiving and transporting pourable solids, particularly waste materials, having a collecting container that is disposed on the vehicle, behind the cab, are known from, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,140,787 or U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,305. In these known vehicles, also referred to as overhead loaders, a pivoting arm arrangement that is hinged to the collecting container picks up an individual, filled container located in front of the vehicle, pivots it over the cab and empties it into a filling opening which is open to the top and is disposed in the region of the end of the collecting container that faces the cab. To fill the collecting container as full as possible, a pressing plate is displaceably guided inside the collecting container.
The disadvantage of the known vehicles is that the collecting container either remains fixedly connected to the vehicle and the contents must be pushed out completely by the pressing plate for emptying via a flap disposed on the collecting container at the end of the vehicle. This requires a long and very costly telescopic cylinder that further reduces the available volume space. In a stationary collecting container, however, the pressure-medium supply presents no problems for the pivoting drive, which is typically hydraulic, and for the pressing cylinder for the pressing plate, because the corresponding pressure lines can be laid permanently (U.S. Pat. No. 3,140,787).
In a concept that includes a removable collecting container, the disadvantage is that, because the pivoting arm arrangement with its drives, and the pressing plate with its pressing cylinder, are seated on the collecting container, a detachable connection for the supply of pressure medium must be provided between the pressure-medium pump disposed on the vehicle and the hydraulic actuation means for the relevant device. The use of hydraulic plug-in connections of this type requires the utmost care and cleanliness in handling, because the infiltration of dirt particles can lead very quickly to disturbances in the hydraulics system. Moreover, this system is very complicated, since each container must be equipped with a pivoting arm arrangement and a pressing device.
WO 93/15981 further discloses a vehicle in which the pivoting arm arrangement and the pressing device are permanently disposed on the vehicle, while the associated, detachable collecting container is provided with a front-side opening that is connected to the emptying opening of the pressing device during operation. This system has the advantage that all of the actuating elements, such as the pivoting arm arrangement and the pressing device, which are preferably to be driven hydraulically, are fixedly connected to the vehicle, while the collecting container is configured as a closed sheet-metal container up to the filling opening at the front end, which is provided with a door. The disadvantage is that, for this system, special collecting containers must be used that are fairly complicated with respect to the sealing and closure of the filling opening.